Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, center right, is joined, from the left, by director/producer Rob Reiner, California Gov. Gray Davis, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Executive Director Joe Edmiston, and state Attorney General Bill Lockyer to announce the state’s plan to buy the Ahmanson Ranch property north of Calabasas – previously slated for a massive housing development by owner Washington Mutual Bank – and instead preserve it as open space for the California park system. The $150 million purchase was made possible by voter-approved Prop. 50, a statewide bond measure. Yaroslavsky noted that the site is home to several endangered species, a wide variety of flora and fauna, and offers myriad hiking and biking opportunities. Davis called the purchase a “once in a lifetime opportunity” that would provide badly needed open space in the heart of a metropolitan area. ( 10/1/03 )